Michelle Li | Journalist

Well, I'm not a super genius, but I'm pretty sure a Grinch from the Post Office stole my mom's gift cards that she sent in the mail.

On Monday, I received the following notice from the post office. We became suspicious when we discovered my mom's card to my uncle also received damage.

Then, on Wednesday, I received a second notice concerning another damaged card from my mom.

The notice I received Wednesday blamed "poor packaging" for the damage, but my mom had sealed it on all sides with tape. And you don't have to look that hard to realize the envelope had been clean cut.

So, here's the lowdown. My mom sent four cards... three of them had damage. My uncle lives in Missouri, and I am in North Carolina. If I had to guess, I'd say the source of the problem comes from my parents' post office.

My mom went to complain since she lost about $150 worth of gift cards in the mail. The person there said, "Oh, we had a lot of complaints on that last year." What?! Anyway, my mom said she filled out some paperwork and may have to go through a dead letter center to see if her stuff ended up there.

Has anyone gone through this before? And successfully recollected their goodies?

I don't care that my dog missed out on a treat or that my husband and I didn't get our gift cards I am upset that my mom and dad got stressed over it and lost out on their money. They're so close to retiring, and I hate to see their money thrown away. It's certainly disheartening.